Pages

Friday, December 12, 2008

12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza

This wonderful event is the brain child of Andrea of Andreas Recipes. How I got asked to be involved with this incredible group is beyond me but all the thanks goes to Kelly of Sass & Veracity. There are 7 of us that have decided to do The 12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza. We will be choosing, baking, tasting, blogging and sharing with you a cookie a day for the next 12 days of December.

These cookies are coming from Gourmet's Favorite Cookie Recipes: 1941-2008. They’ve published a lot of cookie recipes in their 68-year history, many of them around the winter holidays. This season they decided to choose the very best from each year.These are my partners in crime. We will all be choosing different cookies and surprising each other. How fun is that???? Be sure to check out their selections for the day!

n the 1950s, Gourmet was quite smitten with wafer cookies, and these are the ideal chocolate version—thin and deeply chocolaty. To make for easy rolling, chill the dough until quite firm (overnight is best).-Gourmet

Chocolate Wafers - February 1950 (link to the recipe as it was originally printed)

Cream butter, add gradually the sugar. Cream them together until light and fluffy.

Add run extract and egg to the butter/sugar mixture and beat thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt

Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing well after each addition to make a light dough.

Roll the dough out to 1/8 " in thickness on a lightly floured board and cut with a floured cookie cutter into round about 2-1/2 " in diameter.

Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 8 mins. in a 400 degree oven.

makes 6 dozen cookies.

Crappy picture but it shows how some of them are burnt!

My family made me make these! They wanted chocolate after all of the others that I have posted! I really liked these but mine are nothing like what the ones Gourmet magazine made. Somehow missed the part about the chilling time???? So I made my cookies and wanted to roll them out. The stuff was like glue and I knew this wasn't going to work for me. I rolled it into a log and set it in the freezer. I was short on time (can you tell). Pulled the log out and sliced it. Could I get it thin enough? No way, my dough was still too soft but I needed to get these in the oven! I rolled the edges in sugar and plopped them in. I knew my timing was going to off but I sure didn't mean to burn them!!!

I am really kind of sad that this event is coming to an end. At a crazy time of the year I didn't even have to think about what I was going to post on any given day and I got to bond with some wonderful people over our trials and tribulations of these recipes!!! Do I wish this last cookie had of turned out better? Oh yes, I would love to be going out with a blaze of glory but my timing was off and these are what I ended with!

Would I make these again? Probably not. Too many other great cookies out there that have decent directions attached to them!

All in all I am so glad that I was invited to do this. I couldn't have been with a better group of people:

But...I am really disappointed in Gourmet Magazine and the cookie recipes that they published on Gourmet.com. Some of these recipes were terrible and others could be salvaged. Maybe one or two turned out great. I think I am going to do a round up of my cookies over the weekend so I can see and have a clearer mind about my 12 Days of Cookies!!!

10 comments:

Ahhh. The Choco wafer. I chilled mine overnight and used a darker choco. I have heard from others that choco cookies burn faster. Sorry it didnt work like you wanted, but try it again. With some patience and a better grip you will like them, trust me.It is sad , isnt it. I feel like we are leaving our babies( cookies) behind.:-(

Wow you made it! 12 days of cookies is quite an accomplishment. These are the cookies I tried to make that first day, remember? They burnt after 4 minutes in the oven and that's when I realized I was in the wrong event. LOL

You're being too hard on yourself -- but yes, the chilling time on cookies like this is huge. If you have any left, they'd crumble really well and make a great pie crust or cheesecake crust. I enjoyed your great spirit the entire time, Judy! You always make me smile -- which isn't easy ;)

I'd still eat them! I'm developing a taste for burned cookies, which should tell you something about what's been going on in my oven! They'd probably be super with some nice ice cream sandwiched between them.

It's been so much fun getting to know you and your blog! Same time next year for more cookies? :)